Aristide's Final Hours

[seemslikeadream]

As Aristide left, the US marines moved in … and revealed the true power behind the Haitian ‘revolt’. David Pratt reports

It was a strangely unimpressive victory procession into the capital. In all, there were perhaps only half a dozen vehicles, and most of those belonged to TV networks and their cameramen.
Flanked by two pick-up trucks carrying a handful of his soldiers armed with ageing weapons, the hero of the hour, Haitian rebel leader Guy Philippe, dressed in green combat fatigues, waved from the sunroof of his Jeep to the crowds of supporters who had gathered around the National Palace.

This was no Castro entering Havana after the overthrow of the Batista regime . This was a revolution that never was. A stage-managed coup d’état, whose real instigators – the US military – had only to stand on the steps of the same National Palace where just a few days earlier President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had held his last press conference, and watch as ‘regime change’ was implemented in Haiti yet again.

What really happened during the final hours of Aristide’s rule has become almost as controversial as what he did during his decade or so as leader. Did the so-called ‘saviour’ of Haitian democracy really jump from power to avoid a bloodbath, or was he pushed, having outlived his usefulness and political malleability? And just what was the extent of the US role in his demise?

Let’s be clear about this, what happened in Haiti was a coup d’état, and coups in a country like this don’t just happen, especially when the army has been disbanded for nearly a decade. The emergence of Philippe’s rebel army and his triumphant entry into Port-au-Prince had to be organised, his men retrained, resupplied and supported. Someone has to organise a coup.

http://www.sundayherald.com/40405

[Tinoire]

1. A coup for raw resources & labor

In a country of almost unbelievable poverty, where 85% of the people live on $1 a day, nearly all the raw materials are controlled by US corporations, and companies such as Disney which use it as a source of cheap manufacturing.

<snip>

Hardly surprising then, that certain US commercial interests would view Aristide and his motives with some disdain. Likewise the so-called Haitian elite have similar vested interests. There is “a growing enthusiasm among businessmen to use the rebels as a security force” said a report from the Los Angeles Times after the remnants of the Haitian army that helped engineer the coup descended on the capital.

[seemslikeadream]

2. Tinoire have you seen this The Black Commentator

http://www.blackcommentator.com/67/67_pina.html

December 4,2003
Among the other right-wing notables at the founding of the HDP was Stanley Lucas of the International Republican Institute, whose relations in Jean Rabel, Haiti were implicated in a 1987 massacre of peasants. Also in attendance was Olivier Nadal, the former president of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce, who is implicated in a peasant massacre in the Haitian township of Piatre in 1990. (Ears close to Haiti’s courts say an indictment and arrest warrant, in connection with the Piatre massacre, are due to be issued for Mr. Nadal soon.) To round it off and give the semblance of a Haitian center-right coalition, James Morrell chose as a co-founder Clotilde Charlot who is a Social Development Specialist who works for the Women in Development Unit of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). Jocelyn McCalla, founder and former executive director of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR), was also in attendance. Creole language radio stations in New York and Miami as well as officers in Haiti’s police force recently accused NCHR of taking sides with the opposition in Haiti. It must have been a lonely night for Dr. Joseph Baptiste of the National Organization for the Advancement of Haitians (NOAH) whose website states “NOAH's active participation in the democratization of Haiti continues, and was most recently evidenced when the organization was invited to witness the inauguration of the newly elected, President Jean Bertrand Aristide."

Even more interesting is the cadre of Washington suits who attended the HDP’s grand opening. Many in this elite group are also founding members or advisory board members of HDP. The list includes:

Founding board member of HDP, Timothy Carney – U.S. ambassador to Haiti, 1998–99.
Founding board member of HDP Vicki Carney – Consultant, CRInternational, Washington, D.C.; served in U.S. Embassy in Haiti 1998–99.
Clinton L. Doggett – Head of Haiti desk, U.S. Agency for International Development
Sukhi Dosanje – Agency for International Development
Amb. Luigi Einaudi – Assistant secretary-general of the Organization of American States. (For over two decades, Einaudi has been a career U.S. diplomat and defender of Washington's interventionist policies through both Republican and Democratic administrations).
Founding board member of HDP, Ira Lowenthal, in-country director, Associates in Rural Development, 1998–2000. (The Haitian opposition was first forged under Mr. Lowenthal’s tutelage as former guru of the Democracy Enhancement Project).
Founding board member of HDP, Amb. Orlando Marville – Chief of OAS electoral mission in Haiti, May-July 2000. (It was Marville’s office that leaked allegations to the press of incorrect ballot counting methods in the May 2000 parliamentary elections.)
Roger Noriega – U.S. ambassador to the OAS. (Noriega is Jesse Helms’ protégé and a vociferous opponent of popular democratic movements in the region.)
Dan Whitman – Former chief public-affairs officer, U.S. embassy, Port-au-Prince. (Whitman was accused of manipulating a witness, Phillip Markington, in the investigation of the Jean Dominique assassination)

[Tinoire]

8. Yes. Sigh. Olivier Nadal. Worst scum of the earth

Another owner of sweatshops and part of group 184. Of Lebanese descent just like Aipad.

Will look up some of this tomorrow because the same thugs keep popping up.
===

Here's a picture of that ass


Project opening at the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2002


===

<snip>

Other groups went further in condemning many of the organizers of
the event as the financiers of the 1991 coup d'etat. In fact,
Nadal's name was on a United States government list of people
whose assets were frozen in 1994 by the U.S. for being supporters
of the coup, and the prominent businessman, Antoine Izmery,
shortly before he was assassinated, named Nadal, as one of the
members of the economic elite who financed the coup. The Truth
Commission report, which was completed on February 6, 1996,
included a confidential list of financiers of the coup. It was
passed on to the Preval government by outgoing President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, but to date no action has been taken by
the government.

Members of popular organizations expressed outrage that the
financiers of the coup, who have never spoken a word on behalf of
the 5,000 people murdered during the coup, were now styling
themselves as the saviors of democracy and defenders of peace.
Others spoke of another kind of insecurity rampant in Haiti --
the insecurity of hunger. They suggested that if the elites in
fact wished peace and security in the country, they should stop
engaging in monopolistic food pricing, should pay taxes, and
should invest in health care and education and creating jobs.

<snip>

Popular sentiment was further antagonized by a visit of Olivier
Nadal and Jean Robert Wawa (the Vice President of the Chamber of
Commerce) to BelAir on the eve of the rally. Protected by a large
contingent of the Haitian National Police, the two engaged in a
"dialogue" with the population. Amidst the poverty and squalor of
BelAir, where an unemployment rate of 70% reigns, the two
lectured the population on democracy. Nadal said in stilted
Creole that he could not understand why the people felt the need
to turn to violence as a form of expression.

The Confrontation

All of this set the stage for the confrontation on May 28th. At
the scene of the demonstration it became clear that, rhetoric
about peace and non-violence aside, this was in essence an
anti-Aristide rally. At one point a person screamed into the
microphone that "Aristide is an assassin." It is difficult to say
exactly how many supporters of the demonstration were actually
present. The planned start time was for 12 noon. By 1:00 nothing
had yet happened and there was a small group assembled by the
kiosk. By that time another group of counter demonstrators had
gathered and was chanting "Aba Nadal" (Down with Nadal). They
were answered with some very ugly anti-Aristide comments from
some of the participants. A rumor circulated among the bourgeois
participants that 15,000 people were on their way up from shantytown] Cite Soleil. At that point most of the rally
attendees left, causing a traffic jam of 4-wheel drive vehicles
along the Champ des Mars. Then rocks and plastic juice bottles
began to fly. A melee ensued. Some time later the organizers of
the rally felt they had regained control and could begin. They
called all of those supporting the rally to come forward, and the
police attempted to form a cordon around them. However the
speakers faced a crowd that was in majority hostile. Finally, the
police, who remained otherwise passive, intervened and closed the
rally down.

The reactions to this event -- like so many things in Haiti --
were split down class lines. The organizers of the event and most
middle class and wealthy Haitians were horrified and outraged by
the spectacle. Spokesmen spent a great deal of time on the air
denouncing this assault on democracy. They said the disruption of
the rally was exactly the type of insecurity they were organizing
against and proved their cause was just. They also felt betrayed
by the police who had made a lot of noise in the days leading up
to the rally about guaranteeing the security of the participants.

Among ordinary Haitians there was a barely disguised glee and
sense of satisfaction. For once the poor gave the elites what
they felt they had coming to them.

<snip>

All articles copyrighted Haiti Progres, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Progres.

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti-archive/msg00250.html


====

Carney resigned rather abrpuptly. This is interesting:
Wednesday December 1 2:04 PM ET ___ U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Resigns

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Timothy Michael Carney, the U.S. ambassador
to Haiti, has resigned from his position after almost two years in the
post, U.S. officials said on Wednesday. ``The United States embassy can
now confirm that the president of the United States has accepted the
resignation of Timothy Michael Carney,'' the embassy said in a statement
read to Reuters. ``Ambassador Carney will retire after 32 years in the
foreign service, effective December 31, 1999. After a short vacation he
plans to pursue interests in foreign affairs, most probably through the
private sector,'' the statement said. Carney became ambassador to Haiti
on January 10, 1997. There was no further explanation given for his
resignation and no replacement had yet been named.

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti-archive/msg01329.html



251. During the on-site visit, the Special Commission went to Piatre, where it was informed of the following occurences: In February 1986, after Jean-Claude Duvalier left Haiti, the peasants of Piatre decided to initiate legal action to recover territory form which they had been expelled by landowner Olivier Nadal, beginning the appropriate judicial process with the presentation of their titles to the land. According to information released to the Commission, the lands occupied by Nadal are worked by peasants from the community of Delugé, generating conflicts between them and the peasants from Piatre.


This was on the OAS' web-site but mysteriously scrubbed- the ENTIRE multi-page report & section. Available in google cache: http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:F6b2vw-RqO0J:www.cidh.oas.org/countryrep/Haiti90eng/chap.3a.htm+%22Olivier+Nadal%22+duvalier&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

A search of their entire site for Nadal reveals nothing now: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=site%3Awww.oas.org+%22Olivier+Nadal%22+&btnG=Google+Search

[Judi Lynn]

10. Ambassador Carney was a true Republican

as this article points out:

Why Has the U.S. Ambassador Resigned?
After weeks of rumors, it was finally confirmed last week that Timothy Michael Carney has stepped down as U.S. Ambassador to Haiti. The reasons for his resignation, however, remain murky.

One prevalent theory among observers is that, as a Republican, Carney was in deep disagreement with the Clinton administration's approach to the on-going political crisis in Haiti, and, above all, to next November's presidential election which former president Jean Bertrand Aristide is expected to win.

Congressional Republicans, whose right-wing Haitian counterparts lack even a shred of popularity, are anxious to neutralize Aristide. They stridently accuse him of fomenting recent political violence in Haiti, including the disruption of several rallies. "We have to conclude that the electoral problems... are coming from the government of Port-au-Prince and, it is no secret, that of Tabarre," Congressman Porter Goss (R-FL) said last month. (Tabarre is the Port-au-Prince suburb where Aristide lives.)

Meanwhile, the Clinton administration, with the support of most congressional Democrats, has been pushing for elections beginning next March and has demonstrated willingness to strike a deal with Aristide. The Democrats hope to co-opt Aristide and have him continue implementing the neoliberal reforms begun haltingly by President René Préval over the past four years. The reform program involves privatizing state industries, lowering tariff walls, dismissing thousands of state workers, and closing state services. The goals are the same as those of the Republicans, just the tactics differ. The Democrats prefer co-optation, the Republicans confrontation.

Carney's tenure in Haiti, which began in January 1997, was not auspicious. He was reputed to have made deprecating remarks about the country in private. Even in public statements, he was often less than diplomatic. For example, in the summer of 1998, when Haitians protested U.S. claims to Haiti's Ile de Navase (Navassa), a small off-shore island, Carney quipped that Haitians "have more important things to worry about, such as choosing a prime minister." Prime Minister Rosny Smarth had resigned in June 1997 and was not yet replaced due to political wrangling. (snip)

http://www.haiti-progres.com/1999/sm991208/Xeng1208.htm

Creepy, isn't it? He sounds very similar to several of our current ambassadors. Stupid, cocky, pompous, and utterly worthless.

Thanks for bringing up Olivier Nadal. It's a name I've not heard. He sounds completely wrong for a small country with no safeguards for the poor.

[Tinoire]

16. You're a wealth of information! Thanks

Pretty clear what's going on down there. Unions are being busted as we speak. Can you believe that? People pennies an hour in sweat-shops and the "rebels" are busting unions.

Jesse Helms must be so pleased with himself.

[Tinoire]

9. More about that meeting at Brookings Institute with "Roger Noriega"

Project opening at the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2002

Marline Alexis Donor coordination specialist on African riverblindness disease

Dr. Joseph Baptiste President of the National Organization for the Advancement of Haitians (N.O.A.H.)

Alice Blanchet Reporter for the Haitian Times, former adviser to Prime Ministers Malval, Michel, Werleigh and Smarth

Henry F. Carey Professor of political science at Georgia State University; head of the Haiti section of the Latin American Studies Association. Founding board member of Haiti Democracy Project

Timothy Carney U.S. ambassador to Haiti, 1998–99. Founding board member of Haiti Democracy Project.

Vicki Carney Consultant, CRInternational, Washington, D.C.; served in Haiti 1998–99

Jean Casimir Haitian ambassador to United States 1991–96

Clotilde Charlot Co-founder of the Haiti Democracy Project, former vice-president, Haitian Assn. of Voluntary Agencies

Lionel Desgranges Aide to former president Leslie Manigat

Clinton L. Doggett Head of Haiti desk, U.S. Agency for International Development

Sukhi Dosanje Agency for International Development

Amb. Luigi Einaudi Assistant secretary-general of the Organization of American States

Georges Fauriol Vice-president of the International Republican Institute

Mary Ellen Gilroy Director of Office of Caribbean Affairs, State Department

Francois Guillaume President of LIJECH, League of Overseas Students and Professionals for a State of Law

Ira Lowenthal In-country director, Associates in Rural Development, 1998–2000. Founding board member of HDP

Prof. Robert Maguire Director of Haiti Studies Program, Trinity College

Charles Manus Co-founder of the Haiti Democracy Project. ITprofessional.

Amb. Orlando Marville Chief of OAS electoral mission in Haiti, May-July 2000. Founding board member of Haiti Democracy Project

Johnny McCalla Past executive director, National Coalition for Haitian Rights

James Morrell Executive director, Haiti Democracy Project

Olivier Nadal Former president, Haitian chamber of commerce; organizer of 1999 rally for peace and security

Roger Noriega U.S. ambassador to the OAS

Dan Whitman Former chief public-affairs officer, U.S. embassy, Port-au-Prince

http://www.haitipolicy.org/gallery.htm

http://www.haitipolicy.org/

[Tinoire]

11. So... about the HDP's Rudolph Boulos

http://www.haitipolicy.org/

First person on their Board of Director:
Rudolph Boulos
Pharval Laboratories
http://www.haitipolicy.org/main/directors.htm


There were notable Haitians in attendance at the Haiti Democracy Project’s grand opening held in the Brookings Institute on November 19, 2002. Among them was founding member Rudolph Boulos. Boulos is infamous for once being summoned for questioning in February 2002 concerning the assassination of one of Haiti’s most popular journalists, Jean Dominique. Dominique publicly lambasted Boulos for having sold poisoned children’s cough syrup through his company Pharval Pharmaceuticals. Over sixty children died from diethyl alcohol contamination of "Afrebril and Valodon" syrups, the deadly concoction brewed in Boulos private laboratories.

http://www.saveourcivilliberties.org/en/2004/01/179.shtml

Unfortunately, to HDP’s chagrin and angst, Aristide’s popularity among the poor majority of Haitians remains intact. In a backhanded and slanted acknowledgement of this fact Paisley Dodds of Reuters wrote on November 18, “Now opponents say Aristide, who remains the country’s most popular leader, is becoming a dictator.” What Ms. Dodds fails to write is that the “opponents” she refers to include a large helping of white American citizens in the HDP who work, or have worked, for the U.S. government in Haiti.

[eablair3]

3. this coup is nothing new - it's happened many times before

"It is not only by bombing and invasion that the neoconservative side of the Bush administration is able to get rid of governments it doesn’t like. Economic sanctions, political coercion and outright subversion can also be the order of the day."

This was a modern day coup. The formula is nothing new to the Bush Admin. The U.S. has used this over and over in the past. If you've read any detailed accounts of the coups that the U.S. has pulled in the past 50 years, there is a familiar pattern. Cause unrest. Undermine the economy. Payoff people to cause civil unrest. Finance, advise and support the opposition. Make contact with and arm the violent ones, if there are any. Gain control of or pay off those in the media to get your propaganda out there over and over again. It's the same formula that's been used in the past.

Stephen Kinser wrote an excellent recent book about the 1954 coup that the CIA perpetrated in Iran to overthrow the democratically elected Mossadegh so that the Shah of Iran could be returned to power. The book is called "All The Shah's Men". Last Friday, on Democracy Now, they interviewed Kinser and he told about it:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/05/1542249

it's well worth the listen.

What happened in Haiti has all the earmarks of the modern day coup formula.

[Isome]

4. Exactly!

Mossadegh, like Chavez in Venezuela, nationalized the oil industry. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[baby_bear]

5. And will Chavez survive a second (Bush) coup attempt?

Is he more or less vulnerable after this Haiti debacle?

s_m

[Judi Lynn]

6. They started a campaign AGAINST Chavez BEFORE he was elected

according to this article!

Mike Cesar, an analyst for the IRC's Americas Program, reported that in an April 12 facsimile sent to news media, IRI President George A. Folsom rejoiced over Chávez' removal from power. "The Venezuelan people rose up to defend democracy in their country," he wrote. "Venezuelans were provoked into action as a result of systematic repression by the government of Hugo Chávez." (5) With NED funding, IRI had been sponsoring political party-building workshops and other anti-Chávez activities in Venezuela. “IRI evidently began opposing Chávez even before his 1998 election,” wrote Cesar, “Prior to that year's congressional and presidential elections, the IRI worked with Venezuelan organizations critical of Chávez to run newspaper ads, TV, and radio spots that several observers characterize as anti-Chávez.” Furthermore, “The IRI has also flown groups of Chávez opponents to Washington to meet with U.S. officials. In March 2002, a month before Chávez's brief ouster, one such group of politicians, union leaders, and activists traveled to DC to meet with U.S. officials, including members of Congress and State Department staff. The trip came at the time that several military officers were calling for Chávez' resignation and talk of a possible coup was widespread.” One opposition figure to benefit from IRI support said that bringing varied government opponents together in Washington accelerated the unification of the opposition. "The democratic opposition began to become cohesive," he said. "We began to become a team." (6) (7)(snip/...)

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/org/iri.php

Also, from the same article, IRI and Haiti:

According to Robert Maguire, director of the Haiti Program at Trinity College in Washington, DC, “NED and USAID are important, but actually the main actor is the International Republican Institute (IRI), which has been very active in Haiti for many years but particularly in the last three years. IRI has it been working with the opposition groups. IRI insisted, through the administration, that USAID give it funding for its work in Haiti. And USAID has done so but kicking and screaming all the way. IRI has worked exclusively with the Democratic Convergence groups in its party building exercises and support. The IRI point person is Stanley Lucas who historically has had close ties with the Haitian military. All of the IRI sponsored meetings with the opposition have occurred outside Haiti, either in the DR or in the United States. The IRI ran afoul with Aristide right from the beginning since it has only worked with opposition groups that have challenged legitimacy of the Aristide government. Mr. Lucas is a lightning rod of the IRI in Haiti. The U.S. could not have chosen a more problematic character through which to channel its aid.” (12) (snip)

You could say people in their own countries don't stand a chance to achieve any kind of democracy with these monsters in Washington hovering over them to the point they start trying to destroy Presidents even BEFORE they take office. Gee, that sounds like what they did to Bill Clinton, after all.

[Tinoire]

7. Great finds! Both of them! Thanks n/t

[Judi Lynn]

12. Just for the sheer oddness of it, take a look at this article

concerning avaricious behavior by one very large country:

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1998
US, Haiti Face Off Over a Tiny Island's 'Green Gold'

Navassa, once known for rich lode of guano, promises natural riches for a modern market.

Jennifer Bauduy
Special to The Christian Science Monitor

For nearly a century, the little-known island of Navassa floated all but abandoned in the Caribbean Sea. Little attention was paid to its two square miles except for the occasional stopover by fishermen.

A recent revelation changed all that. In July, an American-led team of scientists found hundreds of rare plant and animal species there - a biological treasure trove.

The groundbreaking find has reignited a century-old dispute over the island's ownership. Haiti has claimed Navassa, 40 miles to the west, since its independence from France in 1804. But as far as the United States is concerned, Navassa is a US territory.
to pharmaceutical products," says Ernst Wilson, a founder of the Navassa Island Defense Group and director of Haiti's Institute for
Some in Haiti charge that what naturalists consider "green gold" worthy of study may in fact be coveted more for its potential as gold of the traditional kind.

There are "a lot of possibilities for biotechnology and the transfer Research and Oceanography. "We are talking about a lot of profits."

The US became interested in Navassa after the discovery of large deposits of guano there in the mid-19th century. The bird droppings are a natural agricultural fertilizer, which was highly valued before synthetic fertilizers were manufactured. In 1857, the US annexed Navassa under a law called the Guano Act, which allowed the country to claim any uninhabited island with guano. (snip/...)

http://search.csmonitor.com/durable/1998/10/20/p1s3.htm

[AP]

15. And you wonder why these countries are poor. Anytime they have something

which might be worth something (guano, labor) the us passes a law or underwrites a coup ensuring that the US, for all intents and purposes, owns whatever resource it is that should really belong to these countries and doesn't have to pay for it.

[eablair3]

13. this whole Haiti, Aristide issue is also a political Republican issue

The Repugs, like Jesse Helms, viewed Aristide as "another Castro." When Clinton decided in 1994 to use the military to re-install the democratically elected Aristide, it really upset many Repugs, esp after the Repugs had worked to bring about the coup that overthrow and coup on Aristide in 1991 planned under Bush I. Of course, it didn't take much to get the Repugs riled up about anything about Clinton. They used this as one of many political footballs against Clinton in their relentless vicious propaganda attack campaign.

You saw the same old propaganda re-appear in that congressional committee hearing. Dan Burton brought the same old Republican propaganda in his speech there.

The return of the democratically elected Aristide to power there and getting rid of the first coup perps was considered a foregin policy success for Clinton. The Repugs have been working to undo that ever since.

[Judi Lynn]

14. You're so right.

Clinton undid the damage incurred during the first _Bush Presidency, and they would never be able to rest until they restored ALL the damage to the Haitian people, plus interest.